Lexie Conyngham: Mystery Writer — Interviewed by Wendy Jones

Lexie Conyngham: Mystery Writer

Interviewed by Wendy H. Jones

Thank you, Lexie, for agreeing to be interviewed. I have recently discovered your Hippolyta Napier series and I love both the character and the books. So, I just knew I had to chat to you. I am really looking forward to getting to know you and your books.

First things first, tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a historian and Latin tutor living in Northeast Scotland. I think I’ve been writing since I realised you could, and writing crime fiction since I picked up my first Agatha Christie aged about ten! But I’ve been publishing historical crime fiction since 2011, and loving doing it interleaved with my other work.

What does a writing day look like for you?

Well, in ‘normal’ times all other humans leave the house about eight in the morning and from then to half-past nine is my very best writing time. If that goes well, I can just carry on after that doing as much as is needed – I usually aim for 2,000 words a day but on one memorable peak I hit 12,000! If that first hour and half does not go well, though, there isn’t a hope of getting into it that day. I have to spend my time on research, or paid work, or knitting, or gardening, or cooking, or (perish the thought) housework. Whatever I’m writing is constantly in the back of my mind, so actually I might well be writing in my head, plot-wrangling or character-developing, even when I’m doing something else. If I have a knot in the plot, my best resource is to go and sit on a bus to somewhere or other, and let it work itself out.

I know you write three different series but let’s start with Hippolyta; where did you get the idea for this series?

I wanted to start a second series because at the rate I was writing my first series, my hero would be ancient in very few years. I was intrigued at the idea of writing about Deeside, not far from where I live, before Queen Victoria made it the holiday destination it is now: it’s a beautiful area but there’s little written about it before the Queen turned up and brought so many fashionable people with her. I wasn’t sure quite when to start the series, but around that time Ballater, the village in which the series is mostly set, suffered yet another serious flood. I remembered accounts of the Muckle Spate, a huge flood that affected the area in 1829, and decided to start there. The proceeds from the first two books went, for several years, to the Ballater Flood Fund.

Hippolyta is a fabulous character and I’m curious as to how you went about building her character.

Good question! Hm … Well, I wanted a female lead as my other series had a male lead. I’ve always been interested in medical history and the mid-19th century is a good time for medical developments, and though I haven’t done much with that side of things yet it made it appealing to make her a doctor’s wife, young and new to the town. I’m a bit of a restrained character myself, never taking a mile where I can take an inch, and so it was lovely to

make Hippolyta confident enough to follow up on her nosiness and dare to do a few things I wouldn’t do myself! The same applies to her hospitality to both humans and animals – she has much more nerve than I do just to say ‘All right, come on in and we’ll find you a bed/job/space under the kitchen table’. I’m also interested in how the Victorian period tightened up on ‘respectable’ behaviour, in both men and women – Hippolyta, brought up in the slightly more relaxed late Georgian period, is going to experience restrictions as she goes on – she’s already surprised at the anxiety of young women of her acquaintance about what they’re allowed to do. It mirrors, in some ways, our own times – ideas about ‘acceptable’ speech and behaviour are changing now, too.

You have a lot of animals in your books, and they are fabulous characters in themselves. How do you go about making animal characters, not only likeable, but fun?

I’ve always lived with animals, mostly cats, and I’ll always go out of my way to talk to animals and birds. I find crows fascinating – they seem to be very intelligent! I think perhaps that seeing the animals in the books as characters in themselves helps – something I do when there are animals in my household, too. Though I’ve been told off in a review for not giving one dog a name! Like every other character, it’s how the animals interact with those around them that makes them what they are.

Tell us about your Murray of Letho books.

This was the first series. Murray had existed in various incarnations, as had his old friend Blair, as I fiddled about with proto-books. My main problem was that I thought I wanted to write police procedurals but I was slow at keeping up with the technology and changes in police practice and the law. Then I took a job in Edinburgh’s New Town and I was surrounded every day by glorious Georgian architecture, and it dawned on me that I could probably cope with technological advances if they had happened two centuries before! I love Murray’s household, and his position in society has allowed me to travel a bit with him – to Norway, to Italy and to India, as well as Fife and Edinburgh where he mostly lives.

You also write Viking mysteries. Now, I’m fascinated, where on earth did you get an idea for Viking Mysteries?

Ah, that was a mixture of pride and stupidity! My mother and I met an old neighbour and, as mothers do, she said ‘She writes books, you know!’. The neighbour asked what kind, and I said ‘Historical crime fiction’. ‘Oh!’ he said, ‘do you do anything Viking? I love Vikings!’ ‘Oh, no,’ I said, with a keen sense of Georgian superiority. How could you possibly write a Viking murder mystery? But the thought niggled, and after a visit to York’s Jorvik Viking Centre I had a long hard think about it, and decided that though York and Norway are both places I love to visit I wanted to set the series in Orkney, a favourite place of mine. Frantic research followed – I had no idea how much knowledge I’d built up about the Georgian period until I tried to match it with Viking knowledge in a limited time. But I really enjoy writing the series – Sigrid is a strong woman, Ketil is intriguing as a hero, and it’s renewed my old love of the islands. And the first book is dedicated to that old neighbour!

If you could spend time with any author who is now dead, who would you choose and why?

Dorothy L. Sayers would be high on the list, though I might not be intelligent enough for her – we could talk about cats, and the Anglican church, and Lord Peter Wimsey and traditional crime fiction. I think I’d learn a lot!

If you could spend time with any literary character, who would you choose and why?

I struggled with this one, because many of the literary characters that are great to read about might be a nightmare to spend time with! But I think on this occasion I might go for Miss Marple. Listening to her acute observations would be intriguing, never mind spending time in her garden and probably eating very good scones in a picturesque village … it sounds like the best kind of holiday.

My very last question, where can readers find out more about you and your books?

My website is www.lexieconyngham.co.uk, and I’m on GoodReads, Facebook and Pinterest – and occasionally on Instagram and Twitter. I also blog at www.murrayofletho.blogspot.co.uk – mostly reviews of books I’ve read. And all the books are on Amazon.

Thank you so much for inviting me!

It was absolutely my pleasure, Lexie, and I know Mom’s Favorite Reads readers will feel the same. Thank you for taking the time out of your hectic schedule to join me and give us an insight into your world.

Wendy H. Jones is the award winning, international best-selling author of the DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries, Cass Claymore Investigates Mysteries, Fergus and Flora Mysteries, Bertie the Buffalo children’s books and the Writing Matters books for writers. She is also a writing and marketing coach and the President of the Scottish Association of Writers. As copy editor for Mom’s, she works hard to ensure content is appropriate and free of grammatical and spelling errors. You can learn more about Wendy on her website: